Hi gamedev.net!

I'm currently about to start a project wherein I'll be attempting to design the ultimate game design studio, appropriate for any company from indie dev to majour publisher. However, I need data from those of you who work in a game design studio to identify what needs improving. If you could take this 10 question survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6X5ZD62

and, perhaps send it around to anyone else who you know works in the industry, it would be a massive help to me! I'll post my design here in about 6 months time for those of you who are interested.

Thanks gamedev.net :D

Hmm... I'm not convinced that there is a single, universally-applicable and highly effective model for a game design studio--specifically, I'm inclined to suspect that different people will work well within different models. For example, some people might work well in Valve's "leaderless", flat model, while others might prefer a small, agile, lightly-managed team, and others still work best under a strict hierarchy.

You presumably believe otherwise--if I may ask, what is your reasoning for this?

From the questions, he seems to be talking about the physical premesis/workspace/office, rather than the business itself.
e.g. "*3. Is your studio specially built for game design, or is it a repurposed/renovated building (e.g. office building, wherehouse, etc.)?"

@OP - you're probably going to get misleading replies due to this confusion -- e.g. when asked what I like about my studio, I'd assume you mean the business and then talk about the people, products, working conditions/benefits etc...

Ahh, looking at the questions I think that you're right, Hodgman--my mistake! I do agree, however, that the wording is likely to engender such confusion.

(I'm still not convinced that there's likely to be a single, universally-effective design, however. :P)

I'll be attempting to design the ultimate game design studio

You mean game development studio. I never heard of a studio that does only design. This post does not belong in the Game Design forum. I'm moving it to... let's say... the Lounge.

I think that you'll also find you have a problem with different people being comfortable in different environments.

I personally tend toward more isolation, or at least the option of isolation when I'm working on things. I like to be able to close off my work space and avoid distractions, while having a large enough work space to be able to spread out notes and stuff on a desk and wall/white board. I also like LOTS of screens so that I can spread different bits of code or charts around to refer to at a quick glance. I also like my space to be reasonably well lit, and controllable to avoid screen glare but reduce eyestrain.

Other people I know would much rather work together at a large table, and happily hack away in a single small terminal window.

Some like super dark environments where basically the only light is a computer screen in a dark screen style. Others like bright and open areas. (I would have to go digging for it, but someone posted their new office to Facebook awhile ago, and it was basically a garden-green house with desks. He had a blueberry bush growing beside him, and a large tropical fish tank a few desk stations down.

Then there are all the differences in team dynamics. A 3 person startup doesn't need a board room to host meetings with 50 people, and a company who often has 20 people in meetings isn't going to work well with the same office concepts that a company with 5 people will use. Some things simply can't scale exactly the same.